DOWSING began with man’s need to find water.

Just a few generations ago, almost every farmer could dowse, and find water on his own land.

During the Second World War, dowsers found their skills useful for finding other things too, such as unexploded mines or bombs, underground wires and pipes.

After the war, many of them kept in touch, and eventually formed the British Society of Dowsers (BSD).

This led to the realisation that you could use your rods for almost anything, including tracing archaeological ruins, earth energies, ley lines, and even the source of pain in the human body.

It also led to water dowsers developing not just L-shaped rods and pendulums, but flexible V-shaped rods, double-V rods and even bobbers, each carefully refined for a special purpose.

And for our first meeting of the year on Thursday, January 8, our President, Peter Golding, gave a talk on using the Double-V dowsing rod to find water.

Invented in 1967 by a water diviner named Clive Thompson, an architect and scientist, and Chairman of the BSD for seven years, the Double-V rod in skilled hands is more accurate and can indicate the strength and direction of search, whereas L-rods can only give a simple Yes (found) or No answer.

In order to discover how far underground a blind stream might be, a dowser will walk away from the central source until the rods respond, pacing out the distance covered.

According to the Bishop’s Rule, this represents the depth at which water is flowing.

Water dowsers try to learn all they can about the geology of the land, which types of rock produce the best aquifers, flow and quality of water.

Clay is bad news; sandstone, limestone and chalk are best, as they allow water to flow freely in fissures, and can help refine and purify it too.

If a farmer needs to know where to sink a bore hole for water for his cattle, or a garden centre wants one to ease their eye-watering water bills, a skilled dowser is worth rubies.

If you have a leak in your water system, or your cellar is mysteriously filling up with water, finding out how, why and where is worth diamonds.

Our next meeting is January 24, Trish Mills on “Sacred Geometry Made Simple”.

All welcome.

Phone 01453 545855 or www.slimbridgedowsers.org.uk